


What Friends Are For

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 11:23:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16554851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: @pillarspromptsweekly fill #60, another Deadfire Roll for It. I never pass up a chance to write Rekke, and rolled waterlogged book and friendship for the other two.





	What Friends Are For

**Author's Note:**

> @pillarspromptsweekly fill #60, another Deadfire Roll for It. I never pass up a chance to write Rekke, and rolled waterlogged book and friendship for the other two.

 

Most people looking at the rickety bridge would have marked it as the end of the road. Adela saw it as a puzzle, an obstacle to overcome in pursuit of whatever lay on the other side. Unfortunately, her companions were a bit more skeptical.

“I don’t think we can cross that, Adi,” Xoti said hesitantly, biting her lip as she surveyed the weathered vine ropes and bleached-pale boards of the bridge. “It’s likely to snap if you so much as breathe on it.”

“Oh, it’ll be fine,” Adela assured her, curling the end of her braid around one finger. “We just go one at a time and _carefully_ and it should be okay.”

“Sure, _you_ can say that, Watcher,” Konstanten commented with a wry chuckle, rolling his shoulders.

Adela planted her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at the dwarf. “What’s that s’pposed to mean?”

“Only that you’re significantly lighter than any of the rest of us,” Aloth interjected. “There’s far better odds you’ll make it across alright than anyone else, so perhaps this is somewhere we aren’t meant to go.”

_He’s got a point._ She shooed the thought away. Given everything else they’d discovered on this island, she was loathe to quit now. _Think of what you could learn. This is the first place you’ve seen out here with_ Engwithan _ruins. There might be something that helps with tracking Eothas._ But she temporarily damped her burning curiosity and instead asked, “You’re all worried about that?”

She got three nods with varying degrees of reluctance and one frown of vague confusion from Rekke.

_Damn._  “Well, then...” Adela sucked on her teeth as she looked at the bridge and the chasm it spanned. In true heroic tale fashion, it wasn’t just deep enough to be a problem, there was a river at the bottom, too. She grudgingly acknowledged--to herself, if not her friends--that it perhaps warranted a bit more caution than she’d initially shown. But she wasn’t ready to admit defeat yet. There had to be some way...

Scanning the terrain on the the far side of the bridge, she noticed a good number of rocky outcroppings and scraggly stubborn trees. She smirked slightly. “Do we have any rope?”

Xoti’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I think so...” She unslung her pack and started digging through it. “What’re you plannin’, Watcher?”

“Simple,” Adela said with a shrug. “I’m gonna cross with the rope and tie it off to something, you all tie it off over here, and then you have something to hold as you cross.”

“Or we could acknowledge that whatever might be over there very likely isn’t worth our lives and explore elsewhere, if you really need more than what we’ve already found,” Aloth pointed out, eyeing her with curiosity. “Why is this so important to you, Adela?”

She snorted a soft laugh out through her nose, ears twitching. _The perils of friendship; he knows me too well_. “I just...” She kicked the dirt. “With the way this place is set up--the altars and crypts and everything--it all points to what’s over there being the center. The most important part, and I was sort of hoping we’d find something that might help with Eothas. Or, shoot, even just patching up my soul.”

“Ah.” He nodded in understanding. “I suppose we can give it a try. Will you turn back if it becomes clear this isn’t going to work?”

Adela nodded. “Promise.” Her curiosity wasn’t worth any of their lives. Though if she could get across and they couldn’t, maybe she’d give it a quick look by herself. They hadn’t encountered anything more dangerous than the occasional solitary gul or wyrm hatchling, nothing she couldn’t handle solo.

“Got it! Here ya go, Adi.” Xoti handed over the decent-sized coil of rope from the depths of her pack. “Think it’s long enough?”

“We’ll find out, won’t we?” Adela tossed back with a grin. It definitely looked it to her, but her perception of size was a little skewed. She picked up one end of the rope and tied it in a loose loop around her wrist. It was a little awkward--the rope was almost as thick as her arm--but would serve as a safeguard if she slipped or a board snapped on her or something.

It was at this point Rekke finally connected the dots of what was happening, and his brow furrowed in another frown, this one concern rather than confusion.  “You... cross?” He gestured toward the bridge, which picked that moment to sway in a gust of wind.

Adela nodded, belatedly wincing and scolding herself for not making sure he knew what was going on. His Aedyran had been getting better over the past couple weeks, but he still tended to get lost in rapid-fire discussions, which theirs had certainly been. “I’ll be careful.”

“ _Yuki_ ,” he said, the frown smoothing into a still-worried half smile.

“If I catch his meanin’ correctly, I agree,” Konstanten added, arms crossed and fingers drumming against his bicep. “You’re the whole reason we’re here, Watcher, so we do want you back safe.” As if to emphasize his point, he stooped and picked up the free end of the rope, looping it around his forearm--circling from palm to elbow--a couple times to serve as an anchor for her.

“Thanks,” she smiled, and started across. Behind her, she heard Xoti suck in a worried breath, and Rekke mutter something in Seki that sounded like a prayer, but she kept her attention on the task at hand. It wasn’t a long bridge, though the rotting and occasionally missing boards made it feel that way, and almost before she knew it, she was standing on the other side. Only one or two boards had felt soft under her weight, which only increased her determination to press forward. 

Adela secured the rope to a nearby tree with one of the knots Beodul had shown her and gestured for her friends to follow. In relatively short, blessedly uneventful order, Xoti and Aloth had joined her and Rekke was halfway across. The wind was, however, picking up; tugging at his hair and cloak as he stepped over holes and skirted larger gaps, the bridge’s swaying more pronounced. He’d almost made it when one of the supporting vines snapped and a trio of boards gave out underneath him.

Without even thinking, Adela flung herself forward and grabbed for his hand. It was as foolish as it was instinctive; she wasn’t nearly big enough to even _hope_ she could serve as a counter balance. She tried anyway. Her hand caught his as she landed on the edge of the chasm and knocked the wind out of herself.

Fortunately, Xoti and Aloth were right behind her and Rekke had a death grip on the guide rope, so there were only a few terrifying seconds of staring down into the ravine as they hauled him up.

_Un_ fortunately, once they had Rekke safe on solid ground and Konstanten was making his way across, Adela realized her grimoire was gone.

She was distracted from that momentarily when Rekke patted her shoulder and smiled wide enough to crinkle his freckles. “Thank you,” he said carefully, followed by a look that asked if he’d said it right.

Adela nodded confirmation, smiling back. “You’re welcome. That’s what friends do, right? Sorry about your cloak, though.” She pointed at the long rip running almost the whole length of it from snagging on a broken board as they hauled him up.

Rekke waved off the apology. “I can fix, _ta_?”

Konstanten chuckled as his feet hit solid ground. “Gotta say, if I had to pick between falling to my death and ripping my cloak, I’d be alright with the ripped cloak. I might even have an extra in here you can use for now, since I’m pretty damn sure rain’s comin’.” While he dug through his pack, Aloth tapped Adela on the shoulder.

“Speaking of extra,” he said under his breath, and handed her one of the spare grimoires.

“I knew havin’ you carry those was a good idea,” she said gratefully. “Thanks.”

He nodded, pulling up his hood as the first drops of rain started to fall. Everyone else followed suit and they set out in search of either shelter or something to investigate. Ideally, a combination of the two. 

As they walked, Adela paged through the replacement grimoire, wincing occasionally at unfamiliar or less favored spells. Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers and it was better than nothing. And hopefully she wouldn’t even need to use it. Once they were back on the ship she could start transcribing a new one with all her favorites again.

Rekke tugged her arm to keep her from walking into a stone pillar, and she shot him a sheepish smile. “thanks.”

“You are welcome,” he nodded, twisting a dampened lock of hair around his finger. He gestured to the grimoire. “Where’s yours?”

“Oh, I dropped it. Back there.” She pointed toward the ravine. “It’s no big deal. I can make another one.” Never mind that her parents had given her that one as a going away present when she left for the Dyrwood. That she’d somehow managed to hold onto it through all manner of craziness for five years. That Edér had found it to bring along when her rescued her from the wreck of Caed Nua. It really would be fine. Maybe it was time for a new one.

Rekke seemed to accept her reassurance, though a glimmer of concern lingered in his eyes.

-x-

Their search proved to be largely uneventful--aside from a single grub burrow the others handled without much help from her--and less productive than Adela had hoped. They found a few enchanted trinkets and a fair amount of coin--valuable as antiques even if not as actual currency--but nothing like she’d had been hoping to find. Given that such an artifact would have meant there was at least some soul manipulation going on here, that was probably a good thing, she conceded. Even better, far as some of them--primarily Aloth and Konstanten--were concerned, they found a safer route back down to the shoreline. Given where this part of the island sat relative to where they’d come ashore, there would be a bit of a walk. Still, the spiraling, stone-cut staircase Xoti found behind the central crypt was a safer bet than the bridge--especially given how much worse the weather had gotten.

By the time they reached the bottom, Adela was hunched back in her cloak as far as she could get, trying with limited success to stay dry(ish) and already daydreaming about wrapping herself in a blanket with a mug of tea. Maybe invite Aloth to join her so he could help her start on a new grimoire. She was so lost in thought about spiced apple tea and being _dry_ , she almost missed when Rekke perked up, shucked his cloak, and started walking with purpose toward the nearby river. By the time it registered, he was halfway there.

“Wait a minute, what’re you _doing_?!” she demanded, veering off course to follow him.

He didn’t answer, and he didn’t stop walking, even at the river’s edge, water tugging at his legs as he waded in.

“Rekke!!” Her hood fell down and she barely noticed. She was practically hollering to be heard over the weather and the river. “What-”

Rekke abruptly bent, pulled something free from between two rocks, and pivoted to hold it out to her just as she reached him. “Yours?”

Adela’s jaw nearly hit the rocks. Dripping absolute _streams_ , waterlogged beyond description, significantly more battered but still miraculously in one piece, her grimoire rested in his hands.

After a long moment’s stunned silence as she tried to decide which burning question to ask first, she settled instead on lunging across the remaining space between them to hug him around the waist. It knocked him off balance and he almost dropped the grimoire keeping his feet, but her was grinning at her when she finally let go.

“So,” he began, raking back rain-drenched hair with one hand. “Is yours?”

“Yes!” Adela nodded enthusiastically as she took it from him. It was heavier now, requiring two hands just to hold, and Wael only knew if it could actually be salvaged, but it was hers. For sentimental reasons alone, just having it back was good enough. “How... How’d you even know it was there?”

“I saw it come” --Rekke motioned one hand with the river’s current-- ”downstream.”

“Awful sharp-eyed to see that,” she said, slightly awed, as she hugged it to her chest. “C’mon, let’s get back to the ship, you’re _soaked_.”

“Is alright,” he shrugged, smiling mischievously as he squeezed water from a lock of hair. “It’s what friends do, _ta_?”

“ _Ta_ ,” Adela beamed, still hugging the grimoire close enough to further soak through her clothes. She didn’t care.

It took another hour picking through various terrains to reach where they’d tied up the longboat, she wrenched a knee in the process, and they were all soaked and exhausted by the time they made it back to the _Defiant._

Adela still couldn’t stop smiling, despite the fact Konstanten had to carry her, piggyback, onto the ship. She really did have the best friends.


End file.
